Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My momma just droppped. I just peaked in and there are a bunch of babies in there. I have a question for everyone with experience. The last time (also the first I got a perfect 22 and no slugs) I pulled the babies immediately and momma was PISSED; open mouth hissing and all such towards me for about a week. So this time I was going to let her be with the babies until they all shed...Has anyone done this or do you think it is a bad idea?

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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

It depends who you talk to .Also depends on the females behavior around
the babies is she clumsy or careless crawling over them.
Also helps if they are all on Aspen substrate.
I just left all my babies in on my recent litter 5-13-09 and I had no problems.
In fact I decided to leave them in even after they shed their first shed.
I took them out Tuesday and offered their first meal ,the 10 that ate went back in with mom.
The other 6 have been put in separate containers.
This Female of mine has behaved very nicely towards me.
From the start of birth I was able to reach in and touch babies during birthing.
Immediately After being born she let me take one at a time out
inspect them and put them back in.
She watched every move I made and appeared to keep track as I
removed and replaced babies.
I didn't think they had the capacity to exhibit this type of
behavior,this is part of the reason I did the experiment.
This female was the perfect chance also, it's possible I will not
have a chance to do this again with any other fem.
I will slowly extract the others soon but this fem enjoys having her babies .
Its quite obvious how proud or happy she seems.

Its a tough call you can loose babies by leaving them in with the wrong fem.
This is just my opinion,I think people will agree in most cases
you are better off either removing the mother
or removing the babies.

. . . Lar M

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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm very much interested in her "parental" behavior, so I will let my experiment role. She dropped them in a large rubbermaid I have in there for her, and I'm not sure the neonates can get out, so I will perhaps make some adjustments so they can go in and out. For now I'm just interested in watching mom. I'm actually surprised how docile she is being right now, so I snapped a few pics. They are all normals, so nothing fancy, but they are still my precious babies. Enjoy!

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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

Looks quite cramped in there with mom and babies
less than ideal plus they are on Newspaper
that's when accidents happen.
I wouldn't go with that
that's me.IMO
. . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

It is usually at least a week until babies shed for the first time. Momma needs to eat, babies and baby goo need to be cleaned up and there is also the risk of mom squishing babies if she starts to wander around. Best of luck